Trilha ecológica do Parque Nacional do Iguaçu em Céu Azul: consciência ou ameaça ecológica

Abstract

The preservation of natural resources and maintenance of protected areas (PAs) have received significant attention in the last year, when one notes the growth of awareness activities aimed at protection of fauna and flora. One of the important points is the opening of specific spaces for public viewing within the protected areas, among which even today fits the Ecological Trail located in the city of Céu Azul - PR, which is part of a complex of tourist activities involving the Park Iguaçu National (PIN), which has the peak visitation to Iguazu Falls. The opening of visitation to protected areas in Brazil is still causing heated debates about the impact of such activity on the nature, cause that aroused the interest of this work to analyze the potential threats in the buffer zone (BZ) of PIN in the vicinity of this Ecological Trail. Sought to understand at what point to use the trail to visit can influence the fauna and flora of the PIN, in the view of the authors surveyed, and how it can contribute to the development of environmentally conscious residents of the city of Céu Azul. In this context we investigated the possible threats to the ecological equilibrium in PIN BZ, as well as how the trail is used by environmental agencies in the city, leading schools and the public in general, to develop programs related to environmental education. The survey was conducted from July to December 2010, involving only operational costs such as transportation and printed material. The survey gathered information bibliographical, documentary and interviews with the people, local leaders as mayor, deputy mayor, secretary of education, health, agriculture, environment, tourism and environmental experts who are the employees who serve in the office of information and control PIN developing activities directly linked to the PIN Trail in the town of Céu Azul. From the data obtained it was concluded that the respondents do not consider the existence of environmental impacts of the trail descending the PIN. It was also found that the trail is minimally used for visitation and for the practice of environmental education, and, in general, local leaders and population are awaiting an economic return of tourism activity generally, including designing infrastructure works and pointing out that the technical environment do not favor the opening of demand for visits to Trail, contributing their opinions, so that environmental education focuses only on a theoretical level.